


Like a Phoenix

by EthelPhantom



Series: Ethel's Maribat March 2020 [17]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Bruce Wayne's C+ Parenting, Character Death, Demisexual Marinette Dupain-Cheng, Developing Relationship, F/M, Fluff, I have no idea how to tag, Identity Reveal, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Resurrected Jason Todd, he's trying ok
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-23
Updated: 2020-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:08:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23278372
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EthelPhantom/pseuds/EthelPhantom
Summary: Maribat March 2020, day 23: SoulmatesLive forever, or perhaps it was don't age past 18 until you meet your perfect half, that was how Marinette's life was because she had never met her soulmate. At this point, after millenniums, she was rather sure she would never meet her soulmate.And then there was a boy.
Relationships: Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug/Jason Todd
Series: Ethel's Maribat March 2020 [17]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1650745
Comments: 14
Kudos: 388
Collections: Maribat March





	Like a Phoenix

**Author's Note:**

> Ethel? Back at her angst but there's a happy ending? It's more likely than you think! 
> 
> (Honestly, though, what did you expect. It's me we're talking about, writing Jasonette, of all things. Of course it's angsty. I have written maybe four Jasonette things in my entire life that aren't, and that's counting the platonic ones.)
> 
> Have fun!

_ “Oh, sister, I have someone I’d like for you to meet. Could you please come to the watchtower? He’s coming here.” _

_ “Sure, I’ll be there. How fast do you need me there? I mean, should I take Kaalki and bribe her with sugar cubes or is taking the plane and then finding the nearest zeta enough?” _

_ “Kaalki, please.” _

_ “Alright. I’ll be there in a moment.” _

That was how the conversation had gone, and now she found herself waiting for someone she’d never met come to meet her. It wasn’t surprising she had never met them, really, as she wasn’t really in contact with anyone but Diana and the rest of the Amazons, and even that was mostly because she had wanted to take a short break at some point and found the perfect candidate to take over the Ladybug mantle for a while — Hippolyta. That had meant she spent a while on Themyscira helping Hippolyta get used to the miraculous and Tikki, and then she’d let her have it for the next century or so. Then Hippolyta had given Tikki back and told her she fit the miraculous better, but that she better keep in contact with them. 

It took a while before a man dressed in all black appeared with a small teenager with curly hair who wore tiny, scaly green pants, a yellow cape and a red tunic. It was  _ atrocious _ , for the lack of better word. God, the poor kid. He didn't have a mask on his face either. It seemed to be in his hands behind his back.

She herself was, for once, out of costume. These were people Diana trusted, and it wasn’t like she wasn’t practically immortal at this point. It didn’t matter to her. She’d never met her soulmate, and after the first few millennia, Marinette was rather certain she would never meet them, either. 

The teenager next to the man much taller than her was smiling. He was a little taller than she was as well.

Marinette couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable at the empty and hollow look within his eyes. 

Like the teen had seen something no child should have to ever see in their life.

_ Like the teen had had to personally go through something no child should ever have to go through in their life. _

“Bonjour, monsieur, I’m Marinette,” she told the man in black and offered her hand to him for a handshake. He grabbed her hand and squeezed. It would've been too tight and too strong for most, but as the permanent holder of the Kwami of Creation, it didn't really affect her. 

“Batman. This is Robin,” he said, gesturing at the teenager. The teenager turned his eyes to her. “My… son. Robin, put the mask back on.” The mask found its way back on the boy's face and his eyes were hidden behind white lenses.

“Hello Robin, it’s nice to meet you. Do you want some hot chocolate? Or tea? I just made some a little while ago while waiting for you two.”

“Uh, no thanks.”

“How about lemon bites? Wonder Woman said she had gotten them from someone and liked them and I just had to try my hand at them.”

“I—” 

The teen turned to Batman and looked at him, pleading. The man sighed. “Alright, fine. Go on. Do not take off your mask again, not even if Wonder Woman trusts her.”

“Yeah yeah Old Man, I know that. I’m not stupid.” Turning back to Marinette, the boy grinned. “Okay lady, lead the way!”

Marinette smiled at the teenager and led him through the corridors to the small kitchen with a table that she’d occupied completely. No one else was allowed to come in anymore, not without her permission. Robin happily flopped down on a chair and accepted the cup of hot chocolate and the plate full of lemon bites she handed him. 

“Made too many lemon bites,” she explained at his confused (though happy) look. “The league doesn’t seem to like them that much, not aside from Wonder Woman, and there’s only so much I can eat on my own. If you like them, feel free to take as many as you can home. I can always make more if I get a craving.”

She talked with Robin for a long time. She knew Diana had wanted her to spend time with Batman as she wanted Marinette to become a part of the League, not just someone who went around the globe saving everyone with no one aside from Diana and the occasional Amazons helping her, but for some reason, she felt drawn to the teenager. She had no idea why, or how, but that’s how it was anyway. 

After a few hours, though, she realised it. 

She didn’t know what caused the realisation, but she got it anyway. 

Robin was her soulmate.

He was definitely too young for her.  _ Not okay. _ And if she started ageing  _ now _ , well. She had no idea how to explain that to anyone, least of all this boy who she didn’t know enough well to know whether he’d feel pressured to like her, an adult, just because they were soulmates. He should not need to. He didn’t even need to know about any of this until he was an adult and she could explain her background to him and he could make his own decision without her needing to worry whether he actually consented to anything or not. 

So, Marinette just let him eat in peace as they kept talking about his favourite books. When Batman seemed to decide it was Robin’s bedtime (though Marinette read that as either "we need to get to patrol" or "he has an important test tomorrow and needs to sleep" ), she waved him goodbye and forced a smile on her face. The kid didn’t need to feel like he’d done something wrong, so she wanted to show him she’d enjoyed his company, even if more pressing matters were in her mind right now. 

The boy frowned at her regardless. He must be good at reading people. Marinette just shrugged sadly. 

Once they were gone, she took Diana aside to talk. 

“I’m sorry, Diana, but I need to stay away from the League and especially Batman and Robin for the next six or so years. I need to.”

“What’s wrong, sister? Did they do something to you when I didn’t notice?”

“No. It’s just, Robin is my soulmate. I can’t risk a child, I can’t let a child know his soulmate is thousands of years old. It’s not okay. I’ll let him know we’re even soulmates when he’s older, when I’m sure he’s capable of making his own decisions and consent to anything. Then he can choose, with full knowledge of my background and especially my age.”

Diana smiled at her and put her hand on Marinette’s shoulder. “It’s alright. I’ll still be seeing you, though, right? And Themyscira?”

“Of course. That’s why I’m telling you. You’re my best friend, no way I’m staying away from you. The plan as of now is, I stay mostly at Themyscira, aside from doing my usual save-the-planet-from-the-occasional-people-who-want-to-disrupt-the-true-balance missions. You can always visit me there.”

Diana embraced Marinette before letting go, before Marinette told her goodbye for now and left.

It was okay. After millennia, even a century would be nothing, much less mere six years.

⬷۵⤐

Jason Peter Todd was  _ dead.  _

Beaten with a crowbar and blown up to death.

By  _ Joker. _

At the mere age of 15. 

That was not the story she heard from the news, but Marinette did get the actual story from Diana because she was in the League and was actually  _ told.  _ The news said Jason Todd-Wayne had been caught in a terrorist attack when he was abroad with his adoptive father, Bruce Wayne. 

Marinette hated the fact  _ this  _ was how she found out her soulmate’s name. Robin’s name. 

⬷۵⤐

Marinette appeared in his funeral, waiting in the shadows until everyone had left. She walked to the grave and kneeled down next to it with a heavy heart. Laying down a bunch of flowers on the grave, Marinette finally let tears fall freely down her face. She hadn’t known the boy very well, but maybe if she hadn’t tried to distance herself from him and instead tried to be his friend, maybe he’d told her where he was going and she could have helped him. Considering he hadn’t told anyone until it was too late, it was likely he had wanted to make sure no one stopped him, but maybe, if she’d been there for him, he would have told her if she said that whatever he was going to do, she wouldn’t stop him but give him backup. And then he wouldn’t be dead. 

And while Marinette had resigned herself to a life lived forever a long time ago, when she’d realised she had a soulmate, she had wished she maybe wouldn’t need to, after all. It seemed  _ that  _ hope was gone  _ for good _ now. 

“I’m sorry, Jason. I’m sorry I wasn’t there. I hope you don’t hate the flowers. Maybe rebirth exists and I’ll meet you again at a better time? Maybe you won’t become Robin that time and get yourself killed,” Marinette murmured and placed a beautiful bird candle on the grave. She lit the candle and smiled, tears in her eyes. 

She sat there for an hour or two, simply talking to the grave. She didn’t even care when it started to rain. Marinette simply stayed there, alone. Or, alone, until a shadow fell on her and the rain stopped. 

Marinette turned around and was met with a pair of blue eyes, and a man much taller than herself. Bruce Wayne. 

“Marinette, Diana’s friend, right?” he asked, though the tone was rather bitter. And cold. He didn’t care to keep up the appearance he showed the media, the Brucie Wayne. Understandable. He had just lost his son, and he knew she knew him as Batman better than Bruce Wayne anyway. Marinette nodded and tried to give him a smile, but it didn’t really work — it was closer to a grimace than a smile. “What are you doing here?”

Marinette stood up and squeezed some of the water out of her clothes. “I’m so sorry for your loss. I also apologise if I was intruding, Mr Wayne. I felt like I owed it to Jason to bid him goodbye.”

“Why?”

“I—”

Bruce sighed and gestured at the Manor. “Alfred is going to be upset with me if I don’t invite you in, so, would you like to come inside and maybe dry yourself a little?”

“Thank you.”

She followed him inside and accepted the dry clothes she was soon handed. The butler pointed her in the right direction where she could change her clothing. 

When she returned to the living room of the manor, she was given a cup of tea, and a plate full of lemon bites was placed on the coffee table. She didn’t touch them. She couldn’t because she knew they were Jason’s favourite and she didn’t need any more reminders of the dead child than necessary.

“Well? Why were you at Jason’s grave? You’ve only seen him once, and yet you spent so long there that you let yourself get thoroughly soaked in the rain. Why did you say you owed it to him to say goodbye?”

Marinette sighed and lowered her cup on the table, positioning herself more comfortable. She wrapped a blanket around herself and tucked her feet under her. “I don’t think it’s easy to explain, but I’ll try. How old do you think I am?”

Bruce seemed confused. “Maybe 19, or 20, but 23 at the oldest if you just happen to have a… what did Dick call it again? Babyface. Maybe you have a babyface. Or maybe a little bit older in case you haven’t found your soulmate yet.”

Marinette snorted. “Yeah, that’s what it’s called. But no, I’m older than Diana.”

“You’re  _ what  _ now?”

“Older than Diana. You know, soulmates thing. I’m technically 18, but, well.”

“So you’ve never met your soulmate?”

“I have, actually. He’s dead. I was just visiting his grave today.”

“You have my condolences, it’s hard to lose— Jason is your soulmate, isn’t he.”

It wasn’t a question. Marinette wouldn’t pretend it was. She just nodded.

“But he’s a child. Was. Was a child.” Bruce sounded horrified even though he kept it contained rather well. It was understandable. Then he became suspicious. “You didn’t try doing anything to him back then? And you haven’t tried to sneak behind everyone’s backs to get to him,  _ right?” _

“Why do you think I made it my point to never meet you again?” She asked, arching her eyebrow, deadpanning. “As you said, he was a child. I didn’t know him well enough to be able to say how he would react to his soulmate being an adult, and so I kept away just in case. I didn’t know if he would just be okay with the information and leave the matter alone until he was an adult and then think about it again, or if he would feel pressured or obligated to be anything romantic with me.” 

Marinette shuddered at the thought alone. She wiped the tears forming in her eyes away. She didn’t have the right to cry, not when he was with the father of the boy who had died. “I never told him — in fact, aside from Diana, you’re the only one I’ve told. I had decided I would tell him one day when he was technically at least 20, so he would probably be old enough to decide for himself and old enough to consent to anything like that. I would have told him about my history at least enough to tell him just how long I’ve lived so he would have known what he was getting into, and then he could have said he either wanted something romantic, platonic or maybe nothing to do with me at all. Whatever it would have been, I was going to respect that.

“It’s just, now that he’s dead, I wonder if I should have told him anyway and explicitly said that if anything was going to happen, it would all be platonic and  _ nothing more  _ until he was way older, if even then. Maybe he would have trusted me enough to tell me what he was going to do, and I could have made sure he didn’t die. I don’t know. Whatever it would have been, though, I can no longer change it. Not if I don’t want to destroy the balance of the entire world and cause a disaster on the scale of Pompeii and Black Plague to make up for it. And I don’t. I won’t do that, not for myself, not my soulmate, not my soulmate’s family. I won’t disrupt what I’ve spent nearly all of my life guarding. Thank you for the tea. Take care, Mr Wayne.”

Marinette stood up, was already walking towards the room she’d been pointed to the last time when the butler shook his head to her and handed her her still wet clothes. “There’s no need to, especially not when your own clothing is still wet. You can keep the spares, Miss Marinette.”

“Thank you very much, Mr…?”

“Alfred. My name is Alfred Pennyworth.”

“Thank you very much, Mr Pennyworth. You are a kind man. I’m sorry for your loss as well.”

She gave Alfred a faint smile before tugging on the coat Alfred held out for her. It wasn’t hers either. She didn’t care. 

⬷۵⤐

There came a time when Marinette found herself suited up, staring down at the bleeding, dead body of a man who’d tried to rape a kid. She didn’t care. Neither did Tikki. 

One would have been surprised to realise that Tikki, the kindest and most forgiving of goddesses, didn’t care, but it wasn’t that strange. She was the goddess of creation, and knew, that in order to create, there needed to be destruction. There was a reason her counterpart was the god of destruction. It worked in this case as well. In order to let the child flourish and create, there needed to be destruction, and in this particular case, destruction of what would have destroyed the child. 

And it did not matter to either of them that someone lost their life — they didn’t deserve it, after all.

Marinette had thought about it for a long time, and it wasn’t the first time she’d taken a life; Sometimes it was necessary. 

What it was was the first since she’d come to Gotham, around the time Batman appeared for the first time. She had tried to respect his rules as it was his city, but not anymore. She just did not care. 

Not when that damn rule of his — the  _ only rule he even had  _ — was the reason his son’s killer was still out there, taking even more lives of little children and teenagers and adults because it created chaos and chaos was what he revelled in. 

Marinette would have enjoyed the chaos if it hadn’t meant innocent people dying.

Especially children.

She had given him long enough to correct it, but as he never did anything, Marinette had given up on the rule. 

The Megilla had made her first appearance in four centuries.

⬷۵⤐

Megilla sat quietly on the edge of the building, waiting for Hood to appear. She swung her legs over the edge, looking down at the city below her. 

It took him a while, but eventually, she could sense someone nearby. Megilla turned around and smiled at the man who  _ finally  _ started wearing a red  _ hood _ instead of that helmet. 

She’d only needed to complain about it for two years. Always since they met.

It was nearing seven years since Jason lost his life. 

It was around the time Marinette would have told Jason everything had he been alive. 

But Megilla wasn’t Marinette, and she didn’t want to think about it right now. 

_ Right now,  _ she wanted to spend time with one of her best friends. The only other vigilante/hero/occasional crime lord in the city who shared her sentiments about Batman — about his “no killing” rule, about how not everyone deserved to live. About how both hated Joker from the bottom of their hearts and would hate him till their last breaths. 

What was Hood’s reason, she wasn’t too sure. She didn’t really care either — she hadn’t been able to tell him hers either. Both knew bits and pieces of why the other one hated Joker, but not the full story behind it. 

Hood hated him because the Joker had hurt him. Badly. He still had traumas and nightmares and it had been years since it happened. 

Megilla hated him because he had taken the life of someone she had cared about. Someone she wished she had had the time to know.

And soulmates. Soulmates were something that had never come up. It was a touchy subject neither wanted to talk about, not really. It was too painful to talk about.

Well, apparently all good things had to come to an end, including the fact this was the one relationship she had where she didn’t need to think about explaining why she’d been around for so long, why she knew so much about the past, and why she still looked so young.

“You know, I thought I would never get a soulmate anymore,” Hood states, completely out of blue, and if Megilla doesn’t agree with that, she doesn’t know what she would agree with.

“What brought this on, Hood?”

“Well. It turns out I’ve been ageing. I look actually different from what I looked like three or so years ago.”

“And you only noticed now?”

“Well, it’s not like I enjoy lookin’ at myself in the damn mirror all the time, Megs, and I don’t think I have any pictures of me from the past five years. My friends, ya remember, the Outlaws, they do, and pointed this out to me a few days back. They hadn't seen me in a while and were surprised to see I didn't look like a teen in an adult's body. Their words, not mine.”

Megilla laughed. She wasn’t sure whether to do that or cry, but maybe laughing was better. So, she laughed. At Hood’s glare, she wiped her eyes and smiled at him. “I’m sorry, Hood, but that is kind of hilarious. You got any idea who it could be? Maybe the Outlaws?”

“Nah. ‘S not them. They’ve been ageing on their own, before me. Besides, I’m pretty sure  _ I  _ was not agein’ until I was at least 19, technically. I have no idea who it is though because I have not spent enough time with anyone aside from like, the Outlaws, that the bond would consider ‘meeting’ them. So. Fuck.”

“Would you have wanted to know who your soulmate is?”

“...Yeah. It would be nice to know who fate though could match me well enough to be considered perfect for me, you get me?”

A shrug of shoulders. A wistful look shot at the skies as Megilla leaned back, resting her body weight on her arms. “Yeah, I do. I’ve certainly lived long enough to know I would have liked to know my soulmate.”

“...You sound like you know who they are.”

“Oh, I do, alright. They’re just dead.” Dead, dead, de _ ad, dead, deaddeaddead.  _ “The anniversary of their death is also coming soon.”

“Shit, that sucks. Ya didn’t even get to know them?”

“Nah. I couldn’t meet them more than once or spend time with them for more than a few hours the one time we met.”

“When did they die?”

“I think it’s been nearly seven years. In a few weeks, in fact. I— It was on the 27th.”

Megilla whipped around as she heard a crash next to her where Hood was supposed to be. 

“Hood…?”

“The 27th, you say? The 27th of April?”

“Yeah.”

“Huh, that’s funny.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s nothing.”

She left it at that. They didn’t talk about soulmates again. 

⬷۵⤐

Fuck. 

Marinette looked at herself in the mirror and then frantically searched for photos she had of herself from the previous years.

She had been ageing. 

Just like Hood. 

But how? She was sure she hadn’t gotten a new soulmate — that just did not happen. 

And Jason, well. Jason was  _ dead.  _

There was no reason, no explanation, no  _ anything  _ that could be behind this, that could cause her ageing.  _ Nothing.  _ There was no damn reason that could explain why she was now older than she had been for the past kwamii knew how many millennia. 

Not, unless…

“Tikki! Is there a way for a person to come back to life? Other than using your and Plagg’s miraculi, that is.”

Tikki floated in front of her, tilting her head. “Why do you want to know?”

“Because, Tikki. I have  _ aged _ for the first time in ages and it doesn’t make sense.”

“You have? Oh, in that case. The Lazarus Pit is the most used and also the worst way for it. Makes you lose your mind, takes a long time before you will be able to cope with it. It gives you horrible ideas, tells you to do this and that, and you think you’re completely sane and doing the thinking on your own, you think those decisions logical, but they’re not. They’re never such.”

...Could it be? 

It would certainly explain the murder spree and the multiple attempts on Tim Drake's — the newest Robin's, which, Batman, what the hell, wasn't it enough to get one kid killed? Why are you dragging another one into it? — life during the time Red Hood had first appeared in Gotham.

“Tikki, I need to talk to Hood. Now.”

“Go on, transform. You know you’ll find me in your ear should you need me.”

⬷۵⤐

Megilla dropped down on the ground right behind Hood. He was staring at a body beaten to within an inch from his life. She looked at it once before turning to Hood. 

“Hi, we need to talk, like, right now. You can come willingly or choose to be knocked out, and you know I can and  _ will _ do it if I need to, but I’d certainly prefer not to.”

Hood raised his eyebrow, unimpressed. “Sure, Megs, but where’s the fire? Why—”

“No time, just follow, okay?”

The grumbling from under his breath coming from Hood, accompanied by a sigh and the sound of a grapple confirmed that he was following. 

She led them to her closest safehouse and opened the door before ushering Hood inside. He looked at her, and Megilla was sure he was wearing a confused and suspicious expression but she did not care, not right now. She didn’t have time to care. She pushed the door shut behind her and leaned against it.

“Mask off, please. I can show you my identity as well, tell you who I am, regardless of how this ends, but I  _ need to know.  _ Keep the hood if you want to, but I need to see your face. And your name, real name,  _ please.  _ It’s important and actually has to do with my life. Please.”

Hood sighed and let his shoulders drop. “Alright. Fine.” And then he took off the mask that covered his face and ensured she couldn’t recognise him. He even pulled down the hood, running his hand through his hair, the white streak that seemed to want to stick up even though Hood tried to get it down. 

And  _ god _ , was he gorgeous. 

Megilla shook her head a little, wanting to stop thinking about that  _ for a damn minute _ . 

Hood extended his hand to her, waiting until she grabbed it. “Hello, my name is Jason Todd, and we’ve somehow managed to go about two years without knowing one another’s identities — though not for the lack of trying, at least on my part.”

Laughter bubbled in Megilla’s chest, genuine, happy laughter for the first time in ages.

“It  _ is  _ you,” she breathed out softly, eyes tearing as she reached out to stroke Hood’s —  _ Jason’s  _ — cheek. “I’m so glad to see you alive.”

Megilla stepped back a little. “I might recommend closing your eyes for a second, I’ve been told the light is a little blinding — actually, you know what, I  _ know  _ it’s blinding. Had to see it with Hippolyta a few too many times. You don’t have to, though, I just recommend it.”

She had guessed it, Jason did not close his eyes, but that was fine. Hood had always been stubborn little shit like that, doing whatever the hell he wanted when the situation wasn’t a live or die situation, and she wasn’t surprised to see Jason was the same. It was his fault he had to bring his hands over his eyes _anyway_ when the light hit him. She had warned him.

The transformation fell off, able to do it without the catchphrase after so many years and decades and centuries and  _ millennia _ of doing it. 

“Hi Jason, my name is Marinette, and this here is Tikki, the kwami of creation and she’s basically a goddess. I can’t even remember what my real last name was because I’ve gone by so many through the years, but right now I use Dupain-Cheng. You would know me as the strange woman who was Wonder Woman’s friend about a year before you died and who offered you lemon bites. And you are my soulmate.”

Jason just  _ stopped.  _ He stared at her, gaping. “I’m your  _ what now?”  _

“My soulmate.”

“And you’ve known for how long?”

“...Since I met you. As Robin. My link to creation and Tikki kind of told me, but I turned off said part of the link after you died. I mean, I thought there was no reason to keep it on since my soulmate was  _ dead.” _

“Why did you never tell me we were soulmates? You know, back then?”

At Marinette’s sharp look, Jason seemed to realise. “Oh.”

“Yeah,  _ oh.  _ You were a  _ child,  _ Jason. I didn’t know how you would react to it, and there was  _ no way in hell  _ I was going to let a child think they were being pressured into anything. I didn’t know you, didn’t know how you would react to it, I didn’t know how you would take knowing your soulmate was an adult! __ So sue me for wanting to make sure that you didn’t end up feeling like you were obligated to be  _ anything  _ with me,” she snapped, before calming herself down and sighing. The look in her eyes softened as she tried to smile at Jason a little. “I was going to wait until about now, actually, had you stayed alive, to tell you. I thought that if you were around this age, I could trust your consent as well. I would have always respected a ‘no’, but I would not have been able to trust you saying yes to nearly anything regarding soulmates. So I distanced myself, just in case.”

Jason sighed. “Alright, I understand. Thank you, for trying to make sure you didn’t even accidentally take advantage of me back then.”

“Always.”

Marinette fiddled with her hands before she just decided 'screw it' and hugged Jason. It wasn’t like it was the first time she had hugged him, just because they were now aware of their soul connection didn’t mean she couldn’t do it anymore. It didn’t need to change anything, not unless Jason said he didn’t want it anymore. 

He did not say it.

No, he said nothing and instead brought his arms around her frail form and held her there, bending over a little so he could do it better and more easily, surrounding her. It was safe in his arms, like always, and wow, she should have maybe realised Hood was her soulmate earlier.

When she let go of him finally, Marinette led him to her kitchen and offered to make them tea. He accepted. 

“So. Jason, like said, I would have told you around this time had you not died, and as you’re alive again, I suppose I could formally tell you now anyway. It’s not like the fact you’re my soulmate has changed.” Biting her lip, she continued, “I don’t think I’ve ever said, but there was not only the fact I was already an adult when I met you, but that I’m older than most civilisations on the planet. I am older than honestly anyone I know, even the _Amazons._ I have been alive for millennia. And that’s even more of a reason I needed you to be older before letting you know because it’s such a big thing I need you to be aware of what you could be getting into. 

“I don’t know if I like you in any other way than platonically, but I think that’s partly because I’m demi through and through, and because I thought you weren’t my soulmate so I practically refused to even entertain the idea, but well. Regardless, I think I would be fine with anything, so I want you to tell me what you want. If it is romantic, then so be it, and if it seems to not work, we go back to being friends and that’s okay. If you want to remain as just friends, then that’s fine with me as well, and if one day we think we’d like to try romantic, then we’ll do that. If you want nothing to do with me anymore for some reason, I will, depending on  _ why,  _ be offended, but I’ll respect it regardless.”

Jason seemed to consider it for a moment (or, well, multiple moments). Marinette watched as he emptied his cup, Tikki sleeping on top of her head. Finally, he set the cup down and looked Marinette in the eyes. 

“Alright, so I think trying a relationship would be nice. Romantic, y’know? But like ya said, if it doesn’t work, let’s go back to being friends, then. That alright with you?”

“I think I just told you it is. So yes.”

“Megs, you know as well as I do how important the concept of consent is to both of us, considering we have ridden the city of rather many people who _ didn’t  _ care about it as much. Had to make sure.”

“Of course you did.”

It was said with a warm smile, fondness in her eyes and tone. There was no bite behind either of their words. 

A few weeks later, as Marinette reached out to him to place her hand on his shoulder and he cupped her face in his, a quiet question of “Can I?” was made and a breathless “Please” was said. Which one of them said what didn’t matter — the answer would have been all the same anyway. Marinette’s lips ended up against the cold of Jason’s, left there by death, but she didn’t care. 

The only thought she could voice once their lips parted was one of only a few words, whispered so silently Jason was only barely able to catch it.

“Tu es mon beau phénix.”

After all, he had died in the fire, in an explosion, and then risen from the ashes, now flourishing more beautiful than ever. 

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it!
> 
> I'd love to hear your thoughts on the fic!
> 
> You can also find me on my [tumblr](https://ethelphantom.tumblr.com/) if you want to scream at me about DC, Maribat or Code Geass!


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